Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Motorbikes, and hobbies in general

About three months ago, my company moved office. For me, this was pretty catastrophic, because for years now I have enjoyed a daily cycle commute of 12 miles. It woke me up in the mornings and cleared my head in the evenings, it kept me fit, and summer or winter alike I enjoyed it immensely.

Sadly, cycling to work every day is not really an option now that my company has moved its office to central London. I will, when the weather is good (so not now..), cycle it when I can, but doing 60 miles a day, five days a week wasn't really an option.

I am also an independent (stubborn?) soul, and so really didn't like relying on the trains. Usually they worked, but when they didn't it was chaos.

So, I decided to buy myself a motorbike:

A filthy and fun little two-stroke..

A fun little thing. If you see me on the A3 or in London, please don't run me down, I'm only trying to get to work/home:

Leaving the office in the rain.. thanks to Kit for the photo.

It is a huge improvement on the train: having the ability to jump on the bike and ride home is liberating, and being a (very) experienced cyclist, London road traffic is for me more relaxing than having to walk through the throngs of London tourists.. So, in all, I am quite enjoying it.

What surprised me though was finding out that my father had owned about half a dozen bikes when he was younger:

An Ariel 500cc in the early '60s.

A scooter in the late '60s.

It was strange, because it's yet another hobby of his that I have found myself adopting, none of which I was "pushed" into doing, but have just fallen into naturally.

As well as the motorbikes, my father is also a very keen cyclist (and will knock spots off most men half his age). I grew up with bikes, and spent a lot of summer weekends on the back of his racing bike, speeding around the country lanes:

On holiday in Suffolk. (This is not the racing bike!)

So I grew to love bikes:

A great bike that I sold: it was like a Formula 1 car: fast and beautiful, but not especially practical.

My father was also a very keen photographer:

I like this shot.. I especially like the obvious light seepage into the camera!

A rather technically better shot: I love the green light from the traffic light in the otherwise monochrome image.